For the rest of this week, I want to look at what keeps us from reaching the next level in any aspect of worshiping God - what lids keep us stuck in the box we’re in instead of letting us break out and move forward. Today, our pastor and I are meeting to talk about the lids that are currently at our church and what we can do to break out of them. I’m looking forward to the discussion. But here, we’ll look at these things tomorrow through Friday:
- Personal Lids - what keeps you from worshiping God?
- Corporate Lids - what keeps your congregation from worshiping God?
- Skill Lids - what keeps you and/or your congregation from moving to a higher level of quality and excellence in your musical and/or technical skills?
Have any lids you can already think of?
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on “How to Be an Offering” and, since that is the theme of this blog, I thought I’d catch up a bit! While the past ones have been all focused on Scripture passages (which I will continue to do) I wanted to just share some thoughts on simple ways that you can be an offering with your time.
I’ve been thinking about my roles in life a lot lately. Follower of Jesus, Husband, Father, Graphic Designer, Worship Leader. While our lives are ultimately to be offered to God in worship daily, we are also to serve others and offer our lives in each role we are in. How could fifteen minutes a day serve others that come in contact with your given role? I’ll list mine:
- Follower of Jesus - fifteen minutes a day of mediating on God’s Word (I would suggest much more than that, which I’m still working on, but fifteen minutes is a good starting point)
- Husband - fifteen minutes a day of small housework items. Christine has just gone back to work after maternity leave and is exhausted. If I spend fifteen minutes a day doing easy work, her stress load lightens exponentially. She can spend time with our daughter at night instead of seeing messes around the house.
- Father - fifteen minutes a day praying for my daughter. (Again, this could and should be way more, but I’d rather pray for her fifteen minutes out of my day than no minutes at all!)
- Graphic Designer - fifteen minutes a day going through a tutorial and learning new techniques. I always want to learn how to better my skills.
- Worship Leader - My fifteen minutes in God’s Word already impacted this one, as a worship leader should be first and foremost a student of God’s Word, then a musician. Fifteen minutes a day practicing my instrument(s). Now, granted, some of you who read this play several instruments so this could turn into 45 minutes a day. But think of the impact it will have on your confidence and skill level!
I just planned one hour and forty-five minutes of my day (I’m including fifteen minutes for three instruments). That short time will impact my roles, those who come in contact with me in those roles and my impact on God’s kingdom significantly more than an hour and forty-five minutes of many other things. How much TV does the average American watch??? I don’t even watch that much TV at all, but I know I could be spending my time doing much more beneficial things.
Well, despite the fact that I couldn’t log in to Songselect from home a couple nights ago, I noticed that they have revamped their main page to include some pretty cool stuff. They now have a blog, quick link to Songtouch and my favorite, CCLI TV! This is a pretty cool little link that has a player that shows some great clips from Paul Baloche’s training DVD’s as well as others. Here’s one on singers blending together There is also a section called OpenMic that has videos of new worship songs straight from the churches that are writing them like this one. This is pretty cool stuff! If you are involved on a worship team at all, you really should check these videos out.
